Pub Date : 2022-05-03DOI: 10.1080/15405702.2022.2071900
Sarah Kornfield, Elizabeth Bassett
ABSTRACT Recently, televisual programs such as TV Land’s Younger (2015), Freeform’s The Bold Type (2017), The CW’s Charmed reboot (2018), and Netflix’s Sex Education (2019) joined consumer culture’s era of popular feminism by hailing audiences through feminist appeals. Pilot episodes sell series to network executives and viewers – establishing series’ central tensions. Thus, we analyze how feminism operates in these series’ pilots, attending to their narrative premises and televisual styles. Situating this analysis within the frameworks of postfeminism, girl power, and popular feminism, we trace an overlapping continuum of feminist iterations, from individualized feminism on Younger to corporate feminism on The Bold Type and then collective feminism on Charmed’s reboot and an everyday feminism on Sex Education. Analyzing this television cycle, we argue that while imperfect, these pilots’ iterations of popular feminism represent a transformation from postfeminist entertainment toward politically engaged feminism.
{"title":"Televising popular feminism","authors":"Sarah Kornfield, Elizabeth Bassett","doi":"10.1080/15405702.2022.2071900","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15405702.2022.2071900","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Recently, televisual programs such as TV Land’s Younger (2015), Freeform’s The Bold Type (2017), The CW’s Charmed reboot (2018), and Netflix’s Sex Education (2019) joined consumer culture’s era of popular feminism by hailing audiences through feminist appeals. Pilot episodes sell series to network executives and viewers – establishing series’ central tensions. Thus, we analyze how feminism operates in these series’ pilots, attending to their narrative premises and televisual styles. Situating this analysis within the frameworks of postfeminism, girl power, and popular feminism, we trace an overlapping continuum of feminist iterations, from individualized feminism on Younger to corporate feminism on The Bold Type and then collective feminism on Charmed’s reboot and an everyday feminism on Sex Education. Analyzing this television cycle, we argue that while imperfect, these pilots’ iterations of popular feminism represent a transformation from postfeminist entertainment toward politically engaged feminism.","PeriodicalId":45584,"journal":{"name":"Popular Communication","volume":"21 1","pages":"15 - 28"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49420949","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-04-04DOI: 10.1080/15405702.2022.2047972
Kinga Polynczuk-Alenius
ABSTRACT This article analyzes how conspiratorial knowledge and bio-power were entangled in the Polish government’s discourse to undermine the 2020 Women’s Strike protests against the curbing of access to legal abortion. Theoretically, it uses Foucault's “bio-power” to conceptualize both the assault on reproductive rights and the securitization of ensuing protests based on “conspiratorial knowledge,” which uses conspiracy theories as a heuristic device to understand social changes. Empirically, discourse analysis is deployed to interrogate a video-recorded speech by Jarosław Kaczyński, the country’s de facto leader, posted on YouTube in response to the protests. First, the article exposes how the protests are recast as a conspiracy bent on the legal, biological, and moral destruction of the Polish nation. Second, it examines how a small sample of remediations of the video by oppositional media and women’s rights activists refutes the conspiratorial knowledge it promulgated. Throughout, the article also identifies the “(quasi-)cognitive” and “affective” forms of epistemic capital.
{"title":"“This attack is intended to destroy Poland”: bio-power, conspiratorial knowledge, and the 2020 Women’s Strike in Poland","authors":"Kinga Polynczuk-Alenius","doi":"10.1080/15405702.2022.2047972","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15405702.2022.2047972","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article analyzes how conspiratorial knowledge and bio-power were entangled in the Polish government’s discourse to undermine the 2020 Women’s Strike protests against the curbing of access to legal abortion. Theoretically, it uses Foucault's “bio-power” to conceptualize both the assault on reproductive rights and the securitization of ensuing protests based on “conspiratorial knowledge,” which uses conspiracy theories as a heuristic device to understand social changes. Empirically, discourse analysis is deployed to interrogate a video-recorded speech by Jarosław Kaczyński, the country’s de facto leader, posted on YouTube in response to the protests. First, the article exposes how the protests are recast as a conspiracy bent on the legal, biological, and moral destruction of the Polish nation. Second, it examines how a small sample of remediations of the video by oppositional media and women’s rights activists refutes the conspiratorial knowledge it promulgated. Throughout, the article also identifies the “(quasi-)cognitive” and “affective” forms of epistemic capital.","PeriodicalId":45584,"journal":{"name":"Popular Communication","volume":"20 1","pages":"222 - 235"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-04-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49220175","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-04-03DOI: 10.1080/15405702.2022.2045996
Katja Valaskivi
ABSTRACT The article argues that the hybrid media environment contributes to contemporary epistemic contestations. Framing the argument with the historical and social scientific contexts of our present media landscape it discusses the logic governing the content confusion that permeates this landscape in relation to the construction of world views and social reality. Then, it examines the notion of an attention factory. By way of an example of how the attention factory works and how conspiracy theories are circulated, the QAnon phenomenon is presented. Finally, the article considers whether and how aspects of today’s media environment can be considered responsible or a contributory factor to the high public exposure and visibility of conspiracy theories. The article concludes with a brief discussion of some factors that are deterring the spread of conspiracy theories.
{"title":"Circulation of conspiracy theories in the attention factory","authors":"Katja Valaskivi","doi":"10.1080/15405702.2022.2045996","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15405702.2022.2045996","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The article argues that the hybrid media environment contributes to contemporary epistemic contestations. Framing the argument with the historical and social scientific contexts of our present media landscape it discusses the logic governing the content confusion that permeates this landscape in relation to the construction of world views and social reality. Then, it examines the notion of an attention factory. By way of an example of how the attention factory works and how conspiracy theories are circulated, the QAnon phenomenon is presented. Finally, the article considers whether and how aspects of today’s media environment can be considered responsible or a contributory factor to the high public exposure and visibility of conspiracy theories. The article concludes with a brief discussion of some factors that are deterring the spread of conspiracy theories.","PeriodicalId":45584,"journal":{"name":"Popular Communication","volume":"20 1","pages":"162 - 177"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46061128","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-31DOI: 10.1080/15405702.2022.2057998
Katja Valaskivi, D. G. Robertson
ABSTRACT “Post-truth era” and “fake news” have been the talk of the day for around 10 years now. In our understanding, these terms are used to refer to the contestations of epistemic hierarchies in Western liberal democracies experiencing political shifts toward populist political style and polarization. The contestation takes many forms but is mainly expressed through digital media technologies and related social practices that contribute to the epistemic instability. In this introductory article for the special issue of Epistemic contestations in the hybrid media environment, we argue that the experienced “epistemic crisis” is not only a crisis of epistemic hierarchies and worldviews but also a crisis of knowledge production within epistemic institutions, including the academia. The aim of the special issue is to explore how a multiplicity of competing epistemologies interact and compete in the “post-truth” marketplace of ideas in online popular communication.
{"title":"Introduction: epistemic contestations in the hybrid media environment","authors":"Katja Valaskivi, D. G. Robertson","doi":"10.1080/15405702.2022.2057998","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15405702.2022.2057998","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT “Post-truth era” and “fake news” have been the talk of the day for around 10 years now. In our understanding, these terms are used to refer to the contestations of epistemic hierarchies in Western liberal democracies experiencing political shifts toward populist political style and polarization. The contestation takes many forms but is mainly expressed through digital media technologies and related social practices that contribute to the epistemic instability. In this introductory article for the special issue of Epistemic contestations in the hybrid media environment, we argue that the experienced “epistemic crisis” is not only a crisis of epistemic hierarchies and worldviews but also a crisis of knowledge production within epistemic institutions, including the academia. The aim of the special issue is to explore how a multiplicity of competing epistemologies interact and compete in the “post-truth” marketplace of ideas in online popular communication.","PeriodicalId":45584,"journal":{"name":"Popular Communication","volume":"20 1","pages":"153 - 161"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-03-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47091842","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-17DOI: 10.1080/15405702.2022.2050238
D. G. Robertson, Amarnath Amarasingam
ABSTRACT What is the role of different epistemic modes in how authority is established in right-leaning conspiratorial narratives? This paper sets out to answer this question through a mixed methods analysis. The first section sets out a model for the analysis of epistemic contestations, using six epistemic modes. This is then applied to a data set of Telegram posts in which key terms are used to identify these epistemic modes. Two questions were then asked of the data. First, how is power related to different kinds of knowledge claims in the far-right conspiratorial milieu? Second, what is the role of these different epistemic modes in how authority is established in right-leaning conspiratorial narratives? How does the epistemology of QAnon influence how they argue? We found that while a broader set of epistemic modes could be identified, there were contestations internally also, particularly around moments of “failed prophecy,” and the role of Christianity and esoteric spiritualities.
{"title":"How conspiracy theorists argue: epistemic capital in the QAnon social media sphere","authors":"D. G. Robertson, Amarnath Amarasingam","doi":"10.1080/15405702.2022.2050238","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15405702.2022.2050238","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT What is the role of different epistemic modes in how authority is established in right-leaning conspiratorial narratives? This paper sets out to answer this question through a mixed methods analysis. The first section sets out a model for the analysis of epistemic contestations, using six epistemic modes. This is then applied to a data set of Telegram posts in which key terms are used to identify these epistemic modes. Two questions were then asked of the data. First, how is power related to different kinds of knowledge claims in the far-right conspiratorial milieu? Second, what is the role of these different epistemic modes in how authority is established in right-leaning conspiratorial narratives? How does the epistemology of QAnon influence how they argue? We found that while a broader set of epistemic modes could be identified, there were contestations internally also, particularly around moments of “failed prophecy,” and the role of Christianity and esoteric spiritualities.","PeriodicalId":45584,"journal":{"name":"Popular Communication","volume":"20 1","pages":"193 - 207"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-03-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46532831","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-10DOI: 10.1080/15405702.2022.2044042
T. Shane, Tom Willaert, M. Tuters
ABSTRACT Public concern about “gaslighting” has increased significantly in recent years, both in sociology and the public imagination. As well as describing abuse in romantic relationships, the term has provided a lens for popular understanding of “post-truth” politics. Given that metaphors influence how problems are conceptualized and responded to, we ask how “gaslighting” shapes popular responses to disinformation on Twitter and the conspiracy-rich 4chan. We find that discussions of gaslighting increased significantly on both platforms between 2020–2021, and spiked during the week of the United States 2020 election. We also show that the metaphor can powerfully contest disinformation, while at the same time spread self-sealing and self-fulfilling anxieties about deception that are resistant to disagreement. In light of these findings, we consider how a well designed and well intentioned “good echo chamber” might constitute a technique of resistance to online disinformation.
{"title":"The rise of “gaslighting”: debates about disinformation on Twitter and 4chan, and the possibility of a “good echo chamber”","authors":"T. Shane, Tom Willaert, M. Tuters","doi":"10.1080/15405702.2022.2044042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15405702.2022.2044042","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Public concern about “gaslighting” has increased significantly in recent years, both in sociology and the public imagination. As well as describing abuse in romantic relationships, the term has provided a lens for popular understanding of “post-truth” politics. Given that metaphors influence how problems are conceptualized and responded to, we ask how “gaslighting” shapes popular responses to disinformation on Twitter and the conspiracy-rich 4chan. We find that discussions of gaslighting increased significantly on both platforms between 2020–2021, and spiked during the week of the United States 2020 election. We also show that the metaphor can powerfully contest disinformation, while at the same time spread self-sealing and self-fulfilling anxieties about deception that are resistant to disagreement. In light of these findings, we consider how a well designed and well intentioned “good echo chamber” might constitute a technique of resistance to online disinformation.","PeriodicalId":45584,"journal":{"name":"Popular Communication","volume":"20 1","pages":"178 - 192"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-03-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41692322","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-09DOI: 10.1080/15405702.2022.2044043
Vicki Mayer
ABSTRACT A reflection on my uncomfortable laugh on hearing the news that film workers would be considered “essential workers” during the COVID-19 lockdown, I argue that all cultural workers might be considered essential at this time.
{"title":"Essential","authors":"Vicki Mayer","doi":"10.1080/15405702.2022.2044043","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15405702.2022.2044043","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT A reflection on my uncomfortable laugh on hearing the news that film workers would be considered “essential workers” during the COVID-19 lockdown, I argue that all cultural workers might be considered essential at this time.","PeriodicalId":45584,"journal":{"name":"Popular Communication","volume":"20 1","pages":"253 - 259"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-03-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59911601","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-02-25DOI: 10.1080/15405702.2022.2044041
Carissa Baker
ABSTRACT Theme parks are sites of popular imagination and cultural touchstones. What the COVID-19 pandemic taught is that they are also compelling when closed. This article focuses on fannish activities exemplified by imaginative posts and sweding videos from #HomemadeDisney and others during the period when global Disney theme parks were closed. This hashtag became a virtual communal space, the site of anxiety and brand loyalty but also invention and creation. Through a textual analysis of these posts, it is possible to grasp participatory culture’s role in contemporary life, the value of affinity groups, the power of social media in brand co-creation, the shifting of fan invention techniques, and the role of influential consumers in inspiring others through creative communication. #Homemade projects exemplified the process of creating virtual homes even as so many remained quarantined in physical homes, with the theme park part of the concept of home.
{"title":"Creating virtual homes during COVID-19: #HomemadeDisney and theme park fandom’s response to crisis","authors":"Carissa Baker","doi":"10.1080/15405702.2022.2044041","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15405702.2022.2044041","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Theme parks are sites of popular imagination and cultural touchstones. What the COVID-19 pandemic taught is that they are also compelling when closed. This article focuses on fannish activities exemplified by imaginative posts and sweding videos from #HomemadeDisney and others during the period when global Disney theme parks were closed. This hashtag became a virtual communal space, the site of anxiety and brand loyalty but also invention and creation. Through a textual analysis of these posts, it is possible to grasp participatory culture’s role in contemporary life, the value of affinity groups, the power of social media in brand co-creation, the shifting of fan invention techniques, and the role of influential consumers in inspiring others through creative communication. #Homemade projects exemplified the process of creating virtual homes even as so many remained quarantined in physical homes, with the theme park part of the concept of home.","PeriodicalId":45584,"journal":{"name":"Popular Communication","volume":"95 5","pages":"260 - 273"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41245060","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-19DOI: 10.1080/15405702.2022.2028157
David Crider
ABSTRACT Commercial radio is slow to join the growing podcasting industry, particularly at the local level. This study documents attempts by radio stations to create and sustain local podcasts. A sample of 482 stations from across the United States was analyzed for podcast availability. Nearly two-thirds of stations offer no podcasts at all; less than 20% offer more than one. Podcast offerings were most present in the largest markets or as a product of the largest radio companies. These results build upon previous research on the shrinking local-radio public sphere, and point to a similar disinvestment based in entrenched, revenue-driven mind-sets.
{"title":"A public sphere, on-demand: an assessment of local podcasting","authors":"David Crider","doi":"10.1080/15405702.2022.2028157","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15405702.2022.2028157","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Commercial radio is slow to join the growing podcasting industry, particularly at the local level. This study documents attempts by radio stations to create and sustain local podcasts. A sample of 482 stations from across the United States was analyzed for podcast availability. Nearly two-thirds of stations offer no podcasts at all; less than 20% offer more than one. Podcast offerings were most present in the largest markets or as a product of the largest radio companies. These results build upon previous research on the shrinking local-radio public sphere, and point to a similar disinvestment based in entrenched, revenue-driven mind-sets.","PeriodicalId":45584,"journal":{"name":"Popular Communication","volume":"21 1","pages":"43 - 56"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-01-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41964112","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-06DOI: 10.1080/15405702.2021.2006663
François Mouillot
ABSTRACT This article explores the implications of the rise of digitally–mediated live music performances in the context of one marginalized cultural scene, the Hong Kong independent music scene, during the Covid-19 pandemic. Combining observation of live-streamed events with interviews of key actors in the scene, this article analyses the processes by which the partial ‘platformization’ of live music activities has led to the deterritorialization and reterritorialization of the scene - through collaborations between some Hong Kong and international indie music actors and the reaffirmation of the ‘local’ via the use of visual represesentations of the city in online concerts, as well as to forms of digital disengagement. In turn, the article argues that analyses of the platformization of culture music must take into consideration the socio-cultural effects of digital platforms on specific localized contexts of cultural creation and consumption such as cultural scenes.
{"title":"“The social and cultural dimension of ‘platforming’ live music : the case of the Hong Kong independent music scene during the Covid-19 pandemic”","authors":"François Mouillot","doi":"10.1080/15405702.2021.2006663","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15405702.2021.2006663","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article explores the implications of the rise of digitally–mediated live music performances in the context of one marginalized cultural scene, the Hong Kong independent music scene, during the Covid-19 pandemic. Combining observation of live-streamed events with interviews of key actors in the scene, this article analyses the processes by which the partial ‘platformization’ of live music activities has led to the deterritorialization and reterritorialization of the scene - through collaborations between some Hong Kong and international indie music actors and the reaffirmation of the ‘local’ via the use of visual represesentations of the city in online concerts, as well as to forms of digital disengagement. In turn, the article argues that analyses of the platformization of culture music must take into consideration the socio-cultural effects of digital platforms on specific localized contexts of cultural creation and consumption such as cultural scenes.","PeriodicalId":45584,"journal":{"name":"Popular Communication","volume":"20 1","pages":"274 - 291"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2022-01-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45380928","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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